KEYNOTE SPEAKER
KAREN CONNELL
CAREER SUCCESS
CORPORATE CULTURE
CHANGE - AND WHY IT'S SO HARD
THE NURO-CLASH
RESILIENCE
TEAM ENGAGEMENT & COLLABORATION
COMMUNICATION
"YOUR SUBJECT" (please enquire)
Speaker Bureau Biography
Karen Connell is an executive coach, leadership expert, and founder of The SMALLmighty, a consultancy specialising in behaviour, communication, and leadership performance inside complex organisations.
With more than 35 years working across global corporations, Karen has built a reputation for helping leaders and teams navigate the messy human reality of corporate life: politics, perception, difficult conversations, executive presence, toxic cultures, and the invisible behaviours that quietly shape careers.
By the age of thirty, Karen had become a Global Marketing Director within the Virgin Group before later building her own international consultancy. Since then, she has coached senior executives, delivered leadership programmes, and spoken to audiences across 43 countries, working with organisations including Shell, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Kimberly-Clark and other Fortune 100 businesses.
Karen is best known for her direct, funny, deeply human approach to leadership development. Rejecting corporate jargon and textbook theory, she combines behavioural insight with hard-earned real-world experience — including her own spectacular career mistakes.
Her keynote talks challenge conventional thinking around leadership, authenticity, workplace culture, and performance. Audiences are drawn to her ability to articulate what many people privately think but rarely say aloud: that careers are not built on brilliance alone, but on relationships, trust, judgement, resilience, and behaviour under pressure.
Karen is the author of Perfectly Flawed, a candid and practical guide to navigating the unwritten rules of organisational life. Her work has become particularly popular with leadership teams, high-potential talent programmes, technical experts transitioning into leadership, and organisations seeking more human-centred cultures.
Her signature keynote themes include:
• Why Behaviour, Not Brilliance, Builds Careers
• The Invisible Rules Nobody Teaches You at Work
• How to Build Trust, Visibility and Influence
• Managing Difficult Leaders Without Losing Yourself
• Authenticity, Politics and Executive Maturity
• “Help Me Understand”: Three Words That Change Everything
Karen’s audiences leave entertained, challenged, and equipped with practical tools they can immediately apply — whether they are leading global teams, navigating change, or simply trying to survive Monday morning meetings without accidentally setting fire to their careers.
